Maine Game Wardens Rescue 90-Year-Old Man Lost & Cold in The Woods
Thanks to the bravery and skill of wardens and canines with the Maine Warden Service, and elderly Maine man is safe and back with his family this morning.
According to WGME 13, a 90-year-old man from the small town of Mexico, Maine left a note for his family on Friday saying that he was loading up his ATV into his truck and headed for Township E to look for artifacts in old cellars that were still in the ground out in the woods.
When Friday night rolled around and the man had still not returned home from the day's adventure, his family began to worry. Family members went out to look for him on Friday evening and found that his truck was still at camp. However, they were unable to locate the elderly man or the ATV that he had taken with him.
It was at around 11:15 on Friday evening that they made the decision to call in reinforcements and dialed 911. Multiple agencies including Border Patrol, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office and the Maine Warden Service responded to the scene.
Officials with the Maine Warden Service immediately headed into the woods to look for the man. Eventually, Wardens came across the man's ATV which was reportedly parked in some bushes on the side of a logging road, according to WGME.
At that point, Warden Chad Robertson and partner K9, Storm, headed into the woods to attempt to track the man. Finally, at about 3:15 Saturday morning, the human/K9 team came across a lost and shivering man about a quarter of a mile from where the ATV had been located.
Officials say the elderly man had been looking for artifacts with his metal detector when he was unable to find his way back to where he had parked his ATV. At that point, he had become lost.
The 90-year-old man was not hurt, but he was very cold. WGME reports that when Wardens found the man it was windy and 38 degrees, and he was not dressed for cold weather.
Officials quickly warmed the man up in a truck and got him returned safely to his worried family.